The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for loading a viscous cosmetic material into an inner cup of a compact or other container and for solidifying the cosmetic material loaded therein.
Method and apparatus of this kind is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-60004. The method disclosed therein comprises the steps of mixing powder cosmetic material with a solvent to form viscous cosmetic material, injecting the viscous cosmetic material under pressure into an inner cup of a compact or the like, and at the same time having the solvent in the cosmetic material absorbed into an absorbent material in order to solidify the cosmetic material. This improves operation efficiency and the external appearance of the products considerably, when compared with the conventional method wherein powder cosmetic material added with adhesive but not with a solvent is loaded into a container and is compressed by pressing means, or with the method wherein cosmetic material dissolved in a solvent is poured into a container and left to solidify by evaporation of the solvent. Specifically, the method and apparatus of Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-60004 is as follows. A container having a filling hole at the bottom is placed in a recess of a supporting block. An injection nozzle on the supporting block is then tightly fitted to the filling hole, and a porous absorbent block is pressed against the upper open end of the container with a mesh fabric interposed therebetween. With the apparatus thus arranged, viscous cosmetic material is injected under pressure through the nozzle into the container. During this injection operation, the solvent in the cosmetic material is absorbed through the mesh fabric into the porous absorbent block, thereby solidifying the cosmetic material.
In the above prior art arrangement, however, the inside space of the container is always communicated to the injection nozzle during the injection operation, resulting in solvent continuously being supplied from the viscous material in the nozzle as the porous block absorbs the solvent in the container. Therefore, a considerable amount of the solvent necessarily remains in the cosmetic material even after the above operation, which solvent often causes, when evaporating, a nonsmooth surface such as cracks of the cosmetic material. Further, during the absorbing and solidifying process, even the cosmetic material in the nozzle is partly solidified, which tends to close the nozzle and to develop, after the cosmetic material is completely solidified, unevenness of color or luster of the cosmetic products.
In addition, loading the cosmetic material under pressure requires that the filling hole of the container should be formed at a precise position with accurate dimensions and exactly fitted to the nozzle. Otherwise, the cosmetic material injected under pressure from the nozzle would leak out of the hole and thereby cause waste of the material.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for loading a cosmetic material into a container and solidifying the same, wherein solvent in the viscous cosmetic material may be efficiently absorbed so as to prevent cracks and unevenness of color and of luster of the final products.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of the above type which will prevent any leakage of the cosmetic material when loaded and solidified.
A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which is adapted to carry out the above method.